Wherever you live, climate change will continue to transform your life over the next several decades. It will get hotter and drier, while homes near the coasts face flooding risks due to rising sea levels. The evidence isn’t speculative. On multiple fronts, regions are dealing with real, escalating threats that significantly impact livability. If you aren’t ready to stay in your coastal home despite the risks, it’s time to consider moving to higher ground in your region. Learn about the factors that should influence your choice of locations.
Coastlines around the world are threatened by flooding, erosion, and saltwater incursions into wells and community water supplies. In the United States, the Southeast and Northeast are most susceptible to hurricane and storm surge flooding, as well as losing freshwater supplies due to saltwater incursion as the sea rises. In the West, coastal erosion, including the loss of homes on bluffs above Pacific beaches, and water supply issues are the primary concerns facing homeowners who live near the ocean.
Rather than pull up roots and move across the country, most of us considering a change of homes will want to consider living further from the coast while avoiding other consequences of climate change. Since we cannot entirely avoid the impact of climate change anywhere, a change of homes should be accompanied by adjustments to your lifestyle to minimize its environmental impact.
Areas Where Life Has Already Become Harder Since 2020
Climate impacts aren’t just future projections, they’re happening now across multiple regions.
The Western U.S. faces a skyrocketing risk of lightning-sparked wildfires across 98% of the region, making these areas significantly more hazardous from both fire and degraded air quality. Recent analysis shows that up to 60% of Western U.S. wildfire smoke is directly attributable to human-forced climate change.
Arizona is now seeing heat-related deaths, particularly among elderly or low-income individuals in poorly insulated homes, where air conditioning failure can be deadly within hours. Arizona counties like Maricopa and Yuma are forecast to become uninhabitable by mid-century due to heat, drought, and groundwater decline.
Texas Interior cities like Austin are increasingly subjected to catastrophic flooding from rain-laden tropical storms, which now extend far beyond the coasts.
Vermont presents a dual crisis: farmers are battling flash droughts and long-term dry spells that force them to haul water to prevent livestock losses, while recurring floods in towns like Barre have left homeowners stuck with damaged properties and limited buyout support.
Midwest cities like Muncie, Duluth, and Buffalo are seeing influxes of people fleeing climate-exposed regions, putting strain on infrastructure and social systems.
California’s Central Valley is facing an intensifying drought, which threatens both food production and public health, while Washington State is experiencing a decline in snowpack, increased flooding, and coastal erosion that poses a threat to communities.
When and Where to Consider Leaving
Climate change is driving longer and more severe hurricane seasons, as well as extreme weather events that can contribute to flash flooding. This flash flooding can cause death and property loss in cities farther from the coast. If you live within 15 to 20 feet of sea level in the storm-prone Southeast and Northeast, there are good reasons to think about moving now. These areas face potential damage, and people may be unable to insure homes and personal property, which will lower the value of at-risk homes in these regions.
In 2017, Climate Central identified the 25 most at-risk cities for significant or “100-year” flooding events. The low-lying Southeast is the region most exposed to flood risk, but note that New York City, where a large storm’s tidal surge could displace 245,000 people, tops the list. Florida’s coastal cities represent the most significant population—1.58 million people—that could face disaster due to hurricane storm surge and sea level rise. Not only will these cities suffer, but Climate Central also reports that low-income homes will be hardest hit as the risk of damage will increase by 300% before 2050.
Another problem these low-lying cities face is failing freshwater sources. As sea levels rise, the normal flow of groundwater toward the ocean is reversed, causing aquifers and wells near the coast to become contaminated by saltwater. Florida’s aquifers are particularly susceptible to saltwater intrusion because the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico surround the low-lying state. Yet, earlier this decade, Florida’s population was expected to grow by 25% over the next two decades. More people with access to less water is the recipe for conflict, and it is sure to affect property values, which may account for the slowing migration to the Sunshine State reported earlier this year.
Is There A Way Out, Out West?
The West is not immune to water concerns either. As drought continues and sea levels rise, low-lying homes’ wells and public water supplies could see increased contamination by saltwater. As sea level rises, important coastal wetlands will be threatened, which would alter local food supplies as fish lose their critical habitat.
“If you erase an entire system, the effects are going to ripple upward to predators and downward to prey species. It is just startling,” UCLA Distinguished Professor of Geology Glen MacDonald said when describing a research paper he co-authored in 2018. Despite enjoying a generally steeper coastline, the West faces multiple perils.
Another concern for the Pacific coast is the erosion of bluffs, which will threaten homes, highways, beaches, and wildlife. Orange County, California, has repeatedly seen its commuter and Amtrak services along the coast shut down due to erosion. Trains in the are have seen multiple suspensions between 2022 and 2023 and emergency closures in 2025 for landslide and coastal erosion repairs. These may sound like mere inconveniences that one could live through, but the dire consequences of erosion on the region are wide-ranging and touch every Pacific state, as coastal erosion is responsible for roughly $500 million per year in coastal property loss nationwide.
“Many of these valued coastal systems could reach ‘tipping points,’” the U.S. Geological Service wrote of coastal erosion in a 2021 research report. Those changes, “at which hazard exposure substantially increases and threatens the present-day form, function, and viability of communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems.”
Heat, Health, and Aging
Climate Central also warns that local temperatures are expected to rise, in some cases by more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100. The site provides a tool that illustrates projected average temperature increases for 247 U.S. cities, where seasonal weather will warm enough to feel like cities that are hundreds of miles south.
Extreme heat is a killer. But the news is getting worse, because it turns out that heat stroke might kill quickly, but higher temperatures also make people age faster.
Climate change has arrived, and it is time to take stock of your options on every coastline in the U.S. Nature reported in December 2024 that the body clock “ticks faster” in hotter climates. Researchers found that “every 10% increase in the proportion of hot days added another 0.12 years” to the molecular age of the population studied.
“The physical toll might not immediately manifest as an observable health outcome, but rather could affect our body at the cellular and molecular level,” said a report co-author, Eun Young Choi, a gerontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “And that biological deterioration could later develop into disability.”
Where and Why to Move Nearby
Family, friends, work, and all the patterns of life we know are powerful reasons to stay in the regions where we already live. While there is talk of “climate havens” these days, it is not at all certain that moving to those regions will make life better. So, for most of us, the best option is to stay near home, choosing higher ground that is as insulated as possible from other negative climate impacts, including flash floods and increased fire risk.
Choose City Life
If you have a place on the beach today, consider moving to the central core of the nearest city. All in all, city living is more efficient and allows you to avoid driving. Living in an apartment or condo with easy, car-free access to services, groceries, restaurants, and culture will reduce your environmental impact. There are trade-offs, however, such as a growing city’s contribution to heat island effects, which can alter local weather patterns.
City dwellers tend to live in smaller homes, and their per capita impact on the environment is actually lower than that of suburban and rural communities. Home sizes in the most densely populated cities in the U.S have started to shrink in the early 2020s. However, many destination communities still see new homes growing in size, according to a 2016 PropertyShark report. Over the past 100 years, homes in New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Miami have gotten smaller, while the South, Southern California, and boom cities like Seattle and Portland continue to see homes getting larger. Choosing an apartment or condo instead of a single-family home can help reduce your environmental impact.
Flash Flood Risks
Flash flooding is also a growing problem for cities far inland, as evidenced by the remnants of Hurricane Ida in Tennessee and the New York City region. Before moving anywhere, check the address where you intend to live on RiskFactor.com to see the risk from rising water. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency also offers maps of locations that are threatened by flooding and flash floods.
The extreme rainfall events that are becoming more common in the era of climate change can turn a small stream or a dry gully into a torrent. Look around any location you are considering to see if there is evidence of an inactive water course. Is there a gully or canyon up the hill from the home? A sudden rainstorm or spring runoff could turn these innocuous geological features into threats to the house. For example, bone-dry Phoenix sees regular flash floods, and 13% of homes in the area are at risk. Likewise, 20% of homes in Los Angeles and 19% in Boise are threatened regularly by flash flooding.
Avoid the Wildland Urban Interface
Finally, if you are craving a move to the woods far uphill and inland, there is another concern: wildfire. Over the past 30 years, more than 12.6 million homes in 60,000 communities have been built in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), heavily forested areas where homes are increasingly threatened by wildfire every year that climate change continues. These homes are often surrounded by trees and dry vegetation that should be cleared away at least 300 feet from the home on every side, yet they seldom are.
Life in the WUI means increasing fire risk for 46 million homes, 38% of the 120.7 million households in the U.S. FEMA reports that more than 3,000 homes are lost annually to fire in the WUI.
Wildfire is not a Western phenomenon only: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania fill out the top-five states after California, as facing rising fire risk because of building in or near woodlands.
The Reality Check: Adaptation Is Lagging Behind the Threat
The real story is where and how quickly climate change is dismantling the quality of life, and whether adaptation measures like cooling shelters, fair insurance, and robust coastal defenses are keeping pace. So far, the response is lagging behind the threat. Numerous regions across the country are already harder to live in, from wildfire and smoke in the West to deadly indoor heat in Arizona, flooding and drought in Vermont and Texas, coastal erosion and insurance crises across the South and Southeast, loss of snowpack and water supply issues in the Northwest, agricultural collapse in desertifying zones, and Midwestern stress from climate migration.
Climate change requires rethinking all the assumptions about growth and where we live. These guidelines can help you assess your choices.our own priorities and values will ultimately decide where and how you live. Downsizing your home will reduce your energy use and, by extension, your carbon emissions. Living in a city or any community with robust public transportation can also help alleviate your impact.
One thing is certain. None of us can escape from climate change, so it is time to begin planning to adapt.
Editor’s Note: Originally published on September 21, 2021, this article was substantially updated in September 2025.